But there's one place video still hasn't made great inroads to our daily lives: our personal and business phone calls.

Despite the promise of every single science-fiction show from The Jetsons to Star Trek where every call is on a screen, we don't all have video phones at the ready for talking to loved ones. Well we do—they're called smartphones, tablets, and PCs—but for the most part people still eschew video chatting.

Even so, it's out there and when it's not free, it's affordable. Several good programs didn't make this list because they cost a small monthly fee outside of a trial period to get you hooked. The reason for that: trafficking all that video on the tubes of the Net is expensive, and higher-quality streaming uses even more bandwidth, which naturally costs more. For-fee services include those from vendors like Adobe and Citrix.

Even voice isn't easy, but for a different reason: it doesn't make companies a lot of money. Skype, the behemoth of voice over IP (VoIP)—the protocol used for making calls over the Internet—doesn't earn much money for its corporate owner, Microsoft. But Microsoft knows video can make the difference, which is why it bought Skype and integrated it with all the services it could.

About the Author

Eric narrowly averted a career in food service when he began in tech publishing at Ziff-Davis over 20 years ago. He was on the founding staff of Windows Sources, FamilyPC, and Access Internet Magazine (all defunct, and it's not his fault). He's the author of two novels, BETA TEST ("an unusually lighthearted apocalyptic tale"--Publishers' Weekly) and KALI: THE GHOSTING OF SEPULCHER BAY. He works from his home in Ithaca, NY. See Full Bio